Sleeping In Style

Five star hospitality meets comfort at Jacob Hill Inn

Posted
Tuesday, April 16, 2013 11:41 am

Bill Rezek at the front desk

Michael Cevoli

The hunt-themed dining room

Michael Cevoli

The Providence Suite

Michael Cevoli

Julie Tremaine

For Eleonora and Bill Rezek, hospitality has always been a way of life. “We did quite a lot of entertaining in our small long island home,” Eleonora explains. “One morning over breakfast, our friends looked at us and said ‘have you ever thought about doing this for a living?’ That sparked us to start looking at what running a bed and breakfast would entail.” Twenty years and one major move later, the Rezeks are the proprietors of the Jacob Hill Inn in Seekonk.

The historic property dates back to 1722, and has three buildings: the main house, the White Barn and the Carriage House. From 1923-1942, the home was a hunt club that counted Vanderbilts and other prominent American families among its membership. that legacy is what informs the chic décor and luxury ambience of the inn today, which regularly lands accolades as one of the top inns in America and in major publications like the New York Times.

it’s been a major learning process for Bill and Eleonora – both in running an inn and in renovating an old home, the vast majority of which they did themselves – but they love it. “We’re A personalities,” she says. “Anything we do, we want to do it the best we can. We’ve learned a lot along the way.” Among those things, how to serve a four-course breakfast to a room full of hungry guests every morning. (Eleonora cooks; Bill serves.)

“We have our strengths, and the things we each like,” she says. “that works pretty well. the guests are really the best part. We love our guests, to make them happy. it’s a basic thing, but you have to be a person who finds the reward in that.”